I’ve been in the area in the Zion National Park the past few days. It’s an amazing place, but the weather has been lousy. Clouds, rain and stormy winds reign. Not that one could never make good photos in those conditions, but the light overall has been less than magical.
We went for a drive this evening. For a a few brief moments near sunset, a subtle but beautiful light struck these peaks near the main park. I stopped and spent awhile atop the roof of the SUV with my tripod, taking compositions from a few different directions. The monotone of this scene shouted for a good silver process to really focus on the subtle but beautiful light of these peaks.
For Photographers. How it was made… This was not a greatly complicated setup. I made with my 24-70L at 58mm, f5.6, 1/1o, ISO200. Process was key, though largely LR. I used the Infrared 5 preset from Monochromatix to get started which gave me an initial contrasty tone with bold blacks. Then I worked a bit with channels and minor subtleties and used grads and LR brushes for the main darkening the clouds to help them stand out. Finally into PS for my final details including the all important final burn and dodge.
The crop is almost square. The extra space added little and a chat with Jarrod of Springdale’s Steffan Gallery has me thinking about square formatted images. I nearly went fully square, but I liked this a tad better. I’m of the theory that the best looking aspect ratio is more important than a common one to fit a standard print size.